Chincoteague Island and the Rites of Spring

Chincoteague Island and the Rites of Spring

If spring on Chincoteague Island has a lullaby, it’s the croaking of frogs and toads newly awakened from their winter’s hibernation and eager to find mates.

If spring on Chincoteague Island has a ritual dance, it’s performed by the piping plovers. These threatened birds arrive at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge to nest, but first perform some astoundingly intricate courtship displays before choosing their mates and raising their families over the course of the summer.

If the spring air on Chincoteague Island has a proprietary perfume, it’s the scent of wisteria blooms mingled with the fragrance of salt air. The soft blue cascades of wisteria make a perfect backdrop for the dazzling yellows of the daffodils at the Chincoteague’s Center annual Daffodil Festival in early April, when dozens of Eastern Shore crafters and artists display their finest creations and the face painting is almost (but not quite) as artistic! All of this plus an array of local and regional businesses displaying their goods and services, plus flowers and more flowers!

Easter weekend means it’s time for another celebration of artistry at Chincoteague’s Easter Decoy and Art Festival, where decoys hand carved by some of the best carvers in the US draw crowds of wildlife enthusiasts. Some of the decoys are meant to be used, and some simply to be admired like the many wildlife paintings also being exhibited, but all of them are one-of-a-kind!

Spring on Chincoteague means it’s time to fill up on soft shell crab sandwiches, crab cakes, clam chowder, sweet potato pie, and music from one of the Eastern Shore’ hottest bands at the annual Chincoteague Seafood Festival. Both black and red drum arrive along with the first annual run of flounder if you’d rather catch dinner aboard an inshore charter. The local charter captains are storehouses of information about where the fish are biting and what bait they’re biting on!

Attention turns from the water to the sky with Chincoteague's annual International Migratory Bird Celebration, held at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on Assateague Island. During the spring thousands of shorebirds arrive at the Wildlife Refuge to rest on their journey along the Atlantic Flyway as they migrate to their nesting grounds further south. The Celebration features lectures, workshops, and bird-viewing hikes with avian experts.

Assateague Bus Tour Service resumes on weekends at the Bateman Visitor Center weekends in March and April, and is expanded to include Fridays during May. This two-hour tour (fortunately, this is Assateague, and not Gilligan’s Island) makes a loop of the Wildlife Refuge, and you may catch a few glimpses of the Chincoteague pony herd. A large number of foals are born to the herd in early spring.

The Assateague Lighthouse is open for climbing on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays with the last climb beginning at 2:30. The Lighthouse is not only an important piece of Chincoteague and Assateague history; it’s the tallest structure around and a great place to get a view of the islands and surrounding waters.

The final event of Chincoteague’s spring, and a sure sign that Memorial Day and the summer busy season are looming, is the Blessing of the Fleet and Water Parade. Both commercial and private vessels can participate at Robert Reed Park. After being blessed the boats then travel to Curtis Merritt harbor on the opposite side of the Island.

If spring on Chincoteague Island has reputation, it’s for being just as much fun as summer, without the crowds and mosquitoes!

Chincoteague Island in the Winter Season

Chincoteague Island – Fun and Adventure in the Winter Season
By Sam Serio

Chincoteague Island and Assateague Island in the winter are entirely different, but no less appealing, places than they are in summer season.. The summer throngs of tourists have long gone, and many of Chincoteague's mainstay summer attractions like the beach and bike rental shops have battened their hatches until the return of spring. Chincoteague’s amazing seafood, however, remains available at island eateries all year long! There are many wonderful seafood stands that sell the freshest possible seafood delicacies like oysters, fresh fish, clams, scallops and crabs that you can prepare yourself if you are so inclined.

What a winter visit to these Eastern Shore of Virginia islands will give to those who pay attention is the chance to see the world of barrier islands from an entirely different perspective.

Coming to Chincoteague Island and Assateague Island in the summer, when the water offers respite from the blazing sun and thousands of visitors crowd the beach sands, it's hard to reach beyond the obvious appeal of these islands to the more subtle treasures lying beneath.

By the time winter arrives on Chincoteague and Assateague, the golden, green, and sapphire tones of summer have been supplanted by quieter browns, grey-greens, and grey-blues. The brightest hues you'll find are the iridescent black, blue, and green patches decorating the wings of the teal ducks which now descend on the islands in large numbers, attracting waterfowl hunters in large numbers of their own.

Life changes dramatically during the winter for the herd of Maryland’s Chincoteague ponies on Assateague Island. While the ponies are summertime's biggest draw for the more than one million visitors coming to Chincoteague each year, all that attention make some of the members of the free-running Maryland herd forget their wild heritage and behave like panhandlers, approaching tourists to beg for food.

Visiting Assateague Island in the winter, after the ponies have had a chance to decompress from their days in the spotlight, will let you appreciate them for what they are: living links to an island past which included visits both from Virginia's Native Americans, who gave Chincoteague its name "beautiful land across the water," and from English settlers who arrived in the early 1600s to begin the process of building a new nation.

In the town of Chincoteague itself, the winter decompression from the frenzy of summertime means kids heading back to school and resumption of the town's official business. But it also means that it's time for Chincoteague's Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade, a festive night-time celebration during which Santa himself joins the Saltwater Cowboys, several Eastern Shore marching bands and fire departments, and some ingeniously decorated floats in a procession down Main Street.

Death by Chocolate, during which local merchants entice visitors with chocolate treats, celebrates Valentine's Day and the almost-end-of-winter. Enjoy enough of them, and you'll have a chance to win some terrific prizes!

Finally, as they are everywhere else, the winter days on Chincoteague are short. You’ll simply have to pack as much daylight fun into your visit before the winter witching hour between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM, when the most glorious sunsets of the entire Chincoteague year occur! By the way, isn’t that Cocktail Hour?

Until the next year, the Chincoteague Insider wishes all lovers of a Chincoteague Island Vacation a very happy and prosperous New Year!

Chincoteague Pre-Holiday Potpouri

Chincoteague Pre-Holiday Potpouri

Greetings from the totally water-logged Chincoteague Island! Remember, the beach will rise again in time for next summer. Never fear!

Well, despite being pummeled by rain many times in recent months, the Chincoteague Bridge is on track for a mid to end of January Opening. That’s nothing short of amazing! The years of inconvenience (that’s an understatement) will soon end and the flow of traffic to and from Chincoteague will be easy. Hallelujia!

On a culinary note, you should check out the new Capt.Zack’s mobile seafood restaurant in Oak Hall, just south of T's Corner on Rt.13. It’s quick and good! Call Crystal or Tammy at 757-894-7097.

And now, here’s Evelyn Shotwells’ ‘to do’ list for Chincoteague Island this weekend.

For more information, please call the Chincoteague Chamber of Commerce at 757-336-6161.





December 12: Breakfast With Santa sponsored by Chincoteague Elementary School PTA from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. in the school cafeteria. Tickets are $6 and can be purchased in the school office or at H&H Pharmacy. Breakfast will include scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon, coffee and hot chocolate. Santa is making a special trip from the North Pole to meet with the children and listen to their Christmas wishes. Pictures with Santa will be available for $1.

December 12: Christmas in Onancock Homes Tour & Concert. Visit Ker Place, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, North Street Playhouse, and Cokesbury Church. Enjoy seasonal music performed by the Orchestra of the Eastern shore at each home. Ticket sales benefit the Food Bank of the Eastern Shore. Please call 757-302-0330 or 757-787-7600 or visit www.onancock.org for details.

December 15: Suborbital Rocket Mesquito scheduled for launch from Wallops Flight Facility between 7 am and 9 am. December 16-18 are back up days.
*Visit http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/ or call 757-824-2050 for rocket launch info from Wallops
*NASA VISITOR CENTER: Call 757-824-2298 for winter schedule and hours.

December 18-20: To Bethlehem & Beyond—live drive-through Nativity featuring 14 scenes and live animals will be held at the Union Baptist Church grounds on Church Street from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.

The Chincoteague Chamber Has A FEW 2009 OYSTER FESTIVAL SHORT SLEEVE T-SHIRTS IN LIGHT BLUE AND PINK FOR SALE IN THE CHAMBER OFFICE ($17.00 EACH). WE ALSO HAVE A FEW HATS AND POSTERS. GREAT GIFT IDEAS FOR CHRISTMAS!!!! STOP BY TODAY. WE ACCEPT MC & VISA. 757-336-6161

Chincoteague Camping Continued

Chincoteague Camping Continued

In the last Chincoteague Insider post we discussed a bit of the background to the Chincoteague Island camping experience. Today we will take a brief look at some of the campgrounds on Chincoteague.

At Toms Cove Campground, for instance, three fishing piers and a marina with a private boat ramp give the perfect excuse for a fishing-only camping vacation. The non-fishing members of the family, however, can relax by the pool, entertain themselves with the jukebox and video games at the clubhouse, and shop at the campground store for souvenirs or any camping essentials they forgot!

The thirty-seven yellow pine-covered acres of the Pine Grove Campground are ideal for a woodland Chincoteague camping adventure. Six ponds providing refuge for a wide range of ducks, swans, and other waterfowl species will captivate wildlife enthusiasts. If you’d like to boil up a traditional Eastern Shore dinner, the town crabbing dock is just a short stroll away. You'll also be camping in within a stone's throw of Assateague Island and the Chincoteague ponies.

Even closer to Assateague is the Maddox Family Campground, with all the amenities to make you feel right at home during your Chincoteague camping vacation. The playground and swimming pool will keep the kids happy in between family outings. Hot showers and a laundry room will handle sand and dirt accumulated from outdoor fun, and the campground store as everything from groceries and RV supplies to gifts for the folks back home.

Peak Chincoteague camping season extends from June until Labor Day, and the peak of the peak occurs during Pony Penning week at the end of July. If you're planning a camping vacation during Pony Penning week, you'd be well-advised to reserve your campsite a full year in advance. During the summer, Chincoteague's campgrounds are consistently between 70 and 80% full, so deciding to go camping to get away from it all might be best left to the spring or autumn.

If you'd really like to get away from it all, backcountry camping is available on the Maryland side of Assateague Island. Count on backpacking or canoeing your gear anywhere from 2 1/2 to 13 miles to reach one of the backcountry sites, and be sure to bring an adequate amount of fresh water with you because none will be available at your campsite.

Water, woods, wildlife, and world-class seafood-- they're all waiting when you decide to go Chincoteague camping!

Chincoteague Seafood recipes

Chincoteague Seafood Recipes Revealed


For a bit of fun, we've decided to look at how Chincoteague seafood has been prepared over the years. Here's a revised recipe from a century ago, based on one in the 1908 edition of Miss Parloa's New Cook Book And Marketing Guide with updated amounts in parentheses:

Baked Oysters

The ingredients are:

12 Natural, silver-plated, granite-ware, or tin oyster shells

One quart of Chincoteague Salt oysters
Half a pint (1 cup) of cream or milk
One pint (2 cups) of bread crumbs
One tablespoonful of butter if cream is used
Three tablespoonsful of butter if milk is used
Two tablespoonsful of flour
Salt, pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Drain all the liquor from the oysters into a stew-pan. Let it come to a boil, and skim.
Mix the flour in the cream or milk and add it to the skimmed liquor, boiling the mixture for two minutes. Add the butter and seasonings, then the oysters, and remove from the heat. Test and adjust the seasoning as necessary.

Add the oysters to the shells, leaving room for a thick layer of breadcrumbs. Bake for fifteen minutes, remove to a platter, garnish with parsley, and serve hot.

Pick up some frozen soft-shell crabs from one of Chincoteague's roadside stands, and try another of Miss Parloa's 1908 recipes:

Soft-Shell Crabs.

Lift the shell at both sides and remove the spongy substance found on
the back. Then pull off the "apron," which will be found on the under
side, and to which is attached a substance like that removed from the
back.

Wipe the crabs, and dip them in beaten egg, and then in fine
bread or cracker crumbs. (Salt and cayenne pepper can be substituted for the egg and breadcrumbs.) Fry in boiling fat from eight to ten minutes,
the time depending upon the size of the crabs. Serve with tartar sauce.

The passage of time can do nothing to dim the love well-prepared seafood. Why not either borrow a page from Miss Parloa's cookbook, or come up with a classic of your own and make Chincoteague seafood a regular at your dinner table?